Image forming devices use consumable components, such as toner cartridges. To reduce and save cost it is often desirable to remanufacture used parts of an image forming device. It may be desirable to provide an adapter used to facilitate the modification and remanufacture of an image process cartridge such as a printer toner cartridge. A technique to use such an adapter to modify an imaging process cartridge intended is disclosed. The method used enables an image processor cartridge designed to operate in one type of imaging device to be adapted for use in a plurality of imaging devices such as multiple brands of printers.
Print toner cartridges, once spent, are unusable for their original purpose and may be discarded, even though the image process cartridge itself may still have potential life. As a result, techniques have been developed to remanufacture and refurbishing of various types of imaging components such as toner cartridges, ink cartridges, magnetic rollers and the like. The remanufacturing process may entail disassembly of the various structures of the cartridge, replacing toner, cleaning, adjusting or replacing any worn components and reassembling the cartridge.
Currently, many types of imaging cartridges exist that may be used in only one type of imaging device. Such cartridges may only be remanufactured for use in the same type of imaging device. This constitutes an inefficient allocation of resources because a used cartridge may not be used in any other print device. The differences between printer cartridges for various types of printing devices may only be a slight indentation or protuberance in the body of the imaging cartridge. Such an indentation or protuberance may be incorporated by printer manufacturers in order to restrict a print cartridge from being interchangeable with other imaging cartridges produced by competing manufacturers. Minor modifications to the restricted imaging cartridge may adapt the cartridge for use in other types of printers. What is currently needed in the art is a means by which a restrictive indentation or protuberance may be removed in order to enable the image processing cartridges to be adapted for reuse in other different image processing devices and a method by which such components may be used to remanufacture an imaging cartridge.